Negotiating New Build Price

wanabeFTB

I’m hoping to reserve a new build persimmon home over the weekend. The house type I’m looking at was sold for £80k less than it’s being advertised at now. It’s the only house of that type available and has been on the market for sometime. I’m hoping to agree a discount on the price but is it reasonable to assume I could get the full £80k knocked off. Shall I start at that price or will I get laughed out of the sale office? Should I tell them I’ve seen another one sold for that price which is why I’m offering that amount? I’m a FTB, deposit ready and living with family so I can move quite quickly. I also wanted to get the freebies added or am I being super cheeky. 

Any advise on how you negotiated the price on a new build specifically persimmon would greatly be appreciated! 

wanabeFTB

Sorry to add the house was sold summer last year. 

RelievedSheff

I would say that you are very unlikely to get the £80k knocked off the asking price that you are after.

You are more likely to get extras and incentives thrown in but again these will certainly not total £80k.

GraceD_17

I assume you're saying that the value is now £80k higher than it was when it was sold last year? and you're wanting to buy it for the original price that it was sold for last year, which is £80k lower?

There is bound to be a reason that it's £80k higher than the others of 'that type' have you actually viewed the property or are you going based off photos? I personally find with new builds that the photos on websites such as rightmove are actually a collection of different house photos rather than the one you're actually looking at. So that £80k less one that you've seen sold last year may have a much smaller living room or smaller back garden than the one you're looking at, photos are lies with new build houses, camera angles work wonders. 

Assuming you've viewed it and what not, I do think it's cheeky to try and get a whole £80k off a house, imagine buying a £150k house but expecting to get it £70,000 just because one simmiler sold for that, i'd take things like extensions, decoration elements, parking, bigger rooms or garden into consideration. I don't see why it'd be £80k higher for absolutely no reason. 

Also when a house is re sold it tends to go up in value, i'd for sure ask them why it was so much higher and wait for valid reasons, if they can't give you one difference between the two other than the price then i'd ask for some discount. 

wanabeFTB

GraceD_17 said:

I assume you're saying that the value is now £80k higher than it was when it was sold last year? and you're wanting to buy it for the original price that it was sold for last year, which is £80k lower?

There is bound to be a reason that it's £80k higher than the others of 'that type' have you actually viewed the property or are you going based off photos? I personally find with new builds that the photos on websites such as rightmove are actually a collection of different house photos rather than the one you're actually looking at. So that £80k less one that you've seen sold last year may have a much smaller living room or smaller back garden than the one you're looking at, photos are lies with new build houses, camera angles work wonders. 

Assuming you've viewed it and what not, I do think it's cheeky to try and get a whole £80k off a house, imagine buying a £150k house but expecting to get it £70,000 just because one simmiler sold for that, i'd take things like extensions, decoration elements, parking, bigger rooms or garden into consideration. I don't see why it'd be £80k higher for absolutely no reason. 

Also when a house is re sold it tends to go up in value, i'd for sure ask them why it was so much higher and wait for valid reasons, if they can't give you one difference between the two other than the price then i'd ask for some discount. 

Thanks. Sorry to clarify Both are new builds on the same development. Just a timing difference one sold for £180k the one I’m looking at going for £260k! I’ve had a look at the other plot and it had a north facing garden rather than a west facing one that im looking at. 
i can’t seem to understand why persimmon have increased the price by £80k in 12 months. Maybe that’s why it’s still there? 

Maz1963

I just switched plots on a new development and the 'incentives' on the one I'm now buying are smaller than they were on the previous plot, even though that was smaller.  The sales people have told me that the incentives change daily, based on sales activity. Unfortunately for me, their sales have been good in the past week or so!   That seems like a huge reduction.

Lancs1234

was it listed at £180k or sold for £180k? as that gap could be made smaller if they've managed to negotiate to £180k during a quiet patch for the sales team.

 When I was looking at new build sites I had a conversation with the sales rep about this kind of thing. Often the initial houses close to the entrance to the development are sold cheaper than ones in later phases. 

The sales rep said there can be a few reasons for this- 
The initial phase is purchasing a house knowing that they will have construction traffic up and down their road (roads are often left without their top layer until developments are complete leading to exposed manhole covers etc) for the next few years depending on the size of development. They will also have the constant noise of construction for this time too.

Often houses in later phases maybe better situated on the development, away from main roads, less traffic noise etc and closer to community spaces. 

Demand -  can't comment on your area but if the demand is there in the area for that sort of house at that price bracket then why wouldn't they charge higher? 

then you get the obvious variation in plot sizes, parking arrangements that will also be factored in.

There's quite a few reasons they give, not saying I agree with them all and certainly not saying I agree with increasing to the level you're talking about but increases are normal. 

OldMusicGuy

You can try anything. It will be a test of your negotiating skills. Like Maz1963 said, it all depends on current sales activity and how desperate they are to sell the house. Considering there seems to be a lot of activity right now in the market, you might be hard pushed to get a big reduction.

We are buying a new build and noticed that one of the recently completed houses (occupied around Feb this year) is on the market for 8.1% MORE than exactly the same type of house that is yet to be completed on the development. So the seller and their agent clearly think there is demand for that type of house and that prices have gone up rather than down. 

wanabeFTB

Lancs1234 said:

was it listed at £180k or sold for £180k? as that gap could be made smaller if they've managed to negotiate to £180k during a quiet patch for the sales team.

 When I was looking at new build sites I had a conversation with the sales rep about this kind of thing. Often the initial houses close to the entrance to the development are sold cheaper than ones in later phases. 

The sales rep said there can be a few reasons for this- 
The initial phase is purchasing a house knowing that they will have construction traffic up and down their road (roads are often left without their top layer until developments are complete leading to exposed manhole covers etc) for the next few years depending on the size of development. They will also have the constant noise of construction for this time too.

Often houses in later phases maybe better situated on the development, away from main roads, less traffic noise etc and closer to community spaces. 

Demand -  can't comment on your area but if the demand is there in the area for that sort of house at that price bracket then why wouldn't they charge higher? 

then you get the obvious variation in plot sizes, parking arrangements that will also be factored in.

There's quite a few reasons they give, not saying I agree with them all and certainly not saying I agree with increasing to the level you're talking about but increases are normal. 

It was sold for £180k, unfortunately I can’t see what it was listed at. I guess summer last year we were in the uncertain mist of Brexit. That’s the only thing I can think of other than the noise aspect. Both are on the main route into the development. The cheaper one being tucked slightly further away so they would get the noise from the back rather than the front. 

Demand has definitely gone up in my area so that would be one legitimate reason but not shot up so high especially as the plot sizes and parking are very comparable.

wanabeFTB

OldMusicGuy said:

You can try anything. It will be a test of your negotiating skills. Like Maz1963 said, it all depends on current sales activity and how desperate they are to sell the house. Considering there seems to be a lot of activity right now in the market, you might be hard pushed to get a big reduction.

We are buying a new build and noticed that one of the recently completed houses (occupied around Feb this year) is on the market for 8.1% MORE than exactly the same type of house that is yet to be completed on the development. So the seller and their agent clearly think there is demand for that type of house and that prices have gone up rather than down. 

Thanks it’s definitely worth a try. The worst they can say is no. For some reason, they’ve been available for some time (since beginning of this year) it’s as if they can’t seem to shift the last few plots even in this environment so will see if it works in my favour. 

Prices have gone up in the area however no one that bought on this development is selling up. It would be interesting to see what they would market the house for though.

wanabeFTB

Sorry I’m a fool! I got the door number wrong. I incorrectly assumed it lined up with the plot number. After more investigation it’s a smaller plot doh!